Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-11-19
Sparks Must Go.

The great land crank has finally
written his W obituary, as it is now
assured that his late letter to Secretary
Lamar rejecting on his judgment, and
asking a review of the Omaha decision
will result in his early retirement to
private life. The situation is thus re-
viewed by the st. Paul Pioneer Press:
"Mr. Lamar has proved himself, on
many occasions, q most tolerant official
and patient man. But Sparks has been
too much for him at last. The insane
antics of the crank who has been per-
mitted for nearly three years to admin
lister the affairs Of the general land office
have worn out his forbearance. The
i~nsolence, the ignorance, the pig
~headedness, the determination to make
his own point and to have his own way
at any sacrifice, which have made Mr..
Sparks the curse of the Northwest and
reinforced among the settlers q waning
belief in a personal devil, we're not to be
restrained by the bounds Of common
decency or Official decorum. With the
unbounded egotism of the monomaniac,
Sparks has w for a moment doubted
that he is the most important member
of this administration, and one of the
most striking and eminent figures with
in the circle of the public vision. Look.
ing upon himself with such a kindly
fiattering eye, 1t followed naturally tina
he could not easily brook restraint. He
had laughed at laws enacted by congress
and superciliously brushed out of his
way such trif1ing interferences as decis
ions OF the supreme court. For a being
thus superior to laws and courts, q being
possessed, like the French monarch
with a notion that he was the state, tc
be checked and crossed and instructed
contrary to his purposes by a mere sec
rotary of the interior was intolerable,
For a long time Mr.. Sparks has indicat-
ed that he had bourn pretty nearly as
long as he could with the weakness OF
his official superior, but that he was nc
longer able to conceal his contempt
He has been impudent and indiscreet
and insubordinate before but this time
he surpassed himself. MIR. Sparks had
declared what the law ought to be, in
his opinion, in the case of the Omaha
lands, and decided accordingly that this
was the law. Mr.. Lamar found tina,
the law actually was otherwise, and re-
NOAcOu tiO dCIiclOL. 1iCICuDOn NII
Sparks writes a review and remonstrance
spirit, makes it public property, causes
portions of it to be gwen to the press
from day to day, and finally. after /,
month of this batting, sends a copy of i
to MI. Lamar. There was but one
answer possible. This Mr.. Lamar gave
by reminding Mr., Sparks, in language o
~pardonable severity, of his duty ant
position as a subordinate, and by re
questing MIR. Cleveland to find, at hi,
earliest convenience, a new secretary O
the interior or a new land commissioner
The country will rejoice most heartily
that the issue has been made. OF al
the appointments of the president, none
have been so unfit and offensive as tina,
Of Sparks. Revealing daily his incapac.
ity for the lowest station involving a
recognition of the force of law as oppos-
ed to his personal inclination. playing
the d~emagogue from beginning to end,
without even the craft to conceal his
purposes or to give to his laundering
spite work the semblance of FEASIBILITY
it is one of the most discreditable feat
ures of the record of this administration
that he was permitted for SO long to
browbeat and burden and Cypress the
settlers of the Northwest. In forcing an
issue with him, Mr.. Lamar has earned
the thanks Of the whole country. If he
shall succeed in bouncing the compound
of ignorance and malevolence which has
turned backward the tide Of full pros,
perity that was ready to sweep from
Minnesota westward, bonfires should be
built in his honor from Lake Superior
to the Pacific"